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FANTASY BOB'S CASUAL OBSERVATIONS ON CARLTON, CRICKET, LIFE AND ALL THAT OTHER STUFF

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Borgen

Scotland’s cricketers have gone Borgen mad.

The Tweetosphere is awash with comments on the Danish soap opera depicting the strains on fictional Danish Statsminister Brigitte Nyborg as she tries to balance her family life and her political duties. There are cries of, Why can’t Scottish cricketers play to this standard? Why can’t Scottish cricket be more like this? And so on. And so forth. Afficionados even attended a special event in Edinburgh at which Mrs Borgen appeared in person clad fetchingly head to foot in tartan. Scotland is Borgen mad.

While Fantasy Bob is not quite at the mad end of the Borgenites he has enjoyed the show greatly. He quietly waited through the second series which has just finished for it to address the most important issue facing Denmark today. Instead he was treated to a succession of dramas about Afghanistan, funding the health service, and peace brokering in Africa. All of which may be of significance in their own right but none of which compares to the real issue facing Denmark’s future.

Denmark joined the ICC's High Performance Program from 1 April 2007. In August 2007, Denmark registered a win over Bermuda, and had a very successful tour of Kenya. In November 2007, Denmark took part in Division Two of the World Cricket League. In finishing fourth, they qualified to compete in the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier. However, they eventually came last of the twelve teams, meaning they were relegated to Division Three of the World Cricket League. They next competed in the 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Three, where they came 5th to be relegated to the Division Four. The did however compete in the T20WC qualifying championship in UAE last March where they managed only one win out of 7 matches before losing to Oman in the 15th/16th place play offs.

This is disappointing progress and a test even to the Statsminister's Machiavellian spin doctor Kaspar Juul. for some reason Kaspar also has the name Kenneth.

FB is sure that the scriptwriters could have come up with something which reflected the pressure this would place on Denmark’s elected representatives. An episode which saw Statsminister giving a stirring team talk, if not putting her pads on and getting out into the middle herself, leading instantly to better results would not strain credibility any more than some of the episodes seen so far. Particularly if she wore her tartan outfit.

FB notes that a 3rd series is promised. He is sure this script is in the making.

2 comments:

It was unfortunate that Sidse Knudsen's tartan-swathed visit to Edinburgh did not coincide with FB's net practice schedule but all is not lost. He could always try recruiting her on a regular basis for his All-Star Carlton XI. This might not do much for the team's results but would guarantee a sizeable gate and would catch the prevailing national mood that we are all Danes now.